Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ Review

A lot has been made of Samsung's need to redeem itself after last year's Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco. The company itself hasn't shied away from acknowledging that it needs to earn customers' trust again. The mistakes it made were inexcusable, and the danger to lives and property was very real. But Samsung handled the situation as responsibly as any multinational giant could, made its investigations and remedial steps public, and swallowed losses equivalent to the entire worth of some of its competitors.

The newly launched Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are being held up to intense scrutiny because there's a bigger void than usual to fill. There is no doubt a huge PR cloud over this launch, and we can well imagine how careful Samsung has been with the design and manufacturing these new phones. It's really a pity, because to frame the existence of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ only as some kind of test that Samsung needs to pass would be to miss the point of what these devices really achieve. These two devices reimagine, from the ground up, what an Android phone can and should be.

It's a problem that could use a little reimagining. A little while ago, especially in India, Samsung was synonymous with Android. If you were buying a luxury phone that wasn't an iPhone, it was the current reigning Galaxy S model - or a Galaxy Note if you wanted to be different. Other options did exist, but mainly on the fringes of the market. However, brand power doesn't mean as much nowadays, with dozens of companies screaming about low prices and pushing out model after model that all look the same.

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ were designed to make people remember why ultra-premium phones exist, and to firmly establish Samsung at the top of the market as far as innovation, design and manufacturing are concerned. Very few companies could even attempt to pull something like this off - but has Samsung finally managed to out-Apple Apple? We've spent enough time with the new Galaxy S siblings to tell you.